Saturday, January 7, 2017

2016 Reading List

It was Stephen King who said if you want to be a writer, you have to do two things: write a lot and read a lot. I spend more hours during the day reading than I do writing. But I don't read because I want to be a better writer; I read because I simply enjoy it. I love escaping my mundane cookie-cutter daily routine and going off some place exciting with adventurous people. My primary escape routes are my car during my long work commutes, and my bedroom late at night when I should be sleeping.

Below are the books I read in 2016. Not all were winners and not all were complete losers, but a few turned out to be grand slams. And in the process of reading, yeah, I do learn what good and bad writing looks like so I can either use it or avoid it in my own writing.

Since one man's trash is another man's treasure, I won't tell you which stories were good and which were bad; you'll just have to find that out for yourself. But I will say I never checked anything out from the library that didn't at least look promising.

Admittedly, the list is heavily slanted this year towards Stephen King and David Baldacci. The Baldacci books come from his series of Camel Club adventures and are mostly just fun to read (mostly). And the King books? Well, what can I say -- his escape hatches always swing on well-oiled hinges and the doors are never locked. So without further ado, here are last year's stories in the order I read them:

Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci
The Camel Club by David Baldacci
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
Blue Labyrinth by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Revival by Stephen King
Stone Cold by David Baldacci
The Twelve by Justin Cronin
The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Horizon Storms by Kevin J Anderson
Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Everything's Eventual Part I by Stephen King
The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis
Dune by Frank Herbert
Under the Dome by Stephen King
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
The Collectors by David Baldacci
On Writing by Stephen King
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

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